---

BY JACK KEEFE and KAITLIN KYI

In print | November 1, 2007

Swarthmore borough police responded to a medical emergency at the SAC-funded Halloween party in Clothier Hall during the early morning hours on Sunday. A male student fell down a flight of stairs in Tarble and had been reported as unconscious. The Swarthmore Police arrived at Clothier Hall at 12:20 a.m. and the student was promptly transported to Crozer-Chester Medical Center by an ambulance. The college, police and party associates worked in conjunction in response to the incident, which resulted in a citation. No other students were cited.

Public Safety was notified soon after the accident happened and acted right away. “We immediately summoned an ambulance,” Director of Public Safety Owen Redgrave said. “officers responded directly to the scene. Shortly thereafter, the ambulance arrived and the Swarthmore police arrived, as custom, after the ambulance arrived.” Public Safety also cordoned off the area of the accident until traces of blood could be cleaned up. The usual number of Public Safety officers were present at the time of the accident, and no additional officers were called in.

Swarthmore Borough Police Chief Brian Craig said that when the dispatched police officer arrived at the scene he found the male student to be semi-conscious, after some difficulty locating the injured student within Clothier Hall. The student had a laceration on his chin.

“I have a few scrapes and bruises, and I have a cut on my chin,” the student said a few days after the incident. He said that he fell unconscious as a result of the accident and later awoke in the hospital.

Organizers and on-duty party associates quickly attended to the situation that arose as a result of the accident. “Me and [SAC Co-Chair Kim Watson ’09] asked the PAs to keep everyone in Upper Tarble and everyone in Paces so that nobody was outside and so nobody would disturb the kid that fell … to my knowledge, [the situation] went fine,” said Anna Mello ’08, Social Affairs Committee Co-Chair.

Reports from partygoers indicated that the PAs worked to keep a perimeter around the injured student before and after paramedics arrived on the scene, and that they worked to both clear the Tarble hallway to facilitate safe transport of the students, and to direct partygoers away from areas where police might have been present or investigating. “We wanted the students to be aware that there were authorities who could detain them if they had reason to, so they should be careful … [the police are] not within the college’s power,” attending PA Cathy Ng ’10 said.

Craig was unable to release the police report to The Phoenix, due to the pending investigation of the incident, but said that the injured student will be cited for underage drinking. “had a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage on his person,” Craig said. The police report of the incident will be sent to Delaware County District Attorney, and the student will later receive a summons, which will determine the severity of the citation.

“will be given an option to … do 32 hours of community service and do some counseling, and when the time is up [the citation] changed to ‘disorderly conduct,’” Craig said.

In spite of rumors that police officers were patrolling the campus after the incident occurred, only the one dispatched officer was present on campus for the rest of the Halloween party, according to Craig. “We only had one officer there,” Craig said. “He maintained a presence outside [of Clothier Hall].”

“The students at the college are treated as residents of Swarthmore,” Craig continued. “We treat them the same as someone in town who would be of the same age.”

Ng said that, to her knowledge, the police were not targeting any students. No other citations or arrests occurred at the party. In comparison, no citations or arrests were reported at the Halloween party last year, also hosted in Upper Tarble, while at the Mary Lyons-hosted party during the 2004-2005 school year, two students were arrested and charged with drug and alcohol-related offenses and two students were picked up by borough police to be sent to either Taylor Hospital or Worth. In Mello’s eyes, the on-campus location of the party has helped contribute to the increased safety of the party. “was five feet away from my dorm, I didn’t have to catch a bus, I didn’t have to get caught by police,” Mello said. “It’s safer to have it in Upper Tarble than to have it in ML … ML’s really tight, and [the party] probably destroys their breakfast room.”

Both Mello and Ng, however, acknowledge the safety issue of having potentially inebriated people walk up and down the Tarble stairs. Noting that SAC has not yet discussed the party with the college administration, Mello said, “It’s one incident that night, and I don’t think we’re going to extrapolate to a larger issue.”

Watson addressed the issue as well. “It’s really a pity that Tarble has so many stairs and people might be intoxicated and fall … but that’s the only space here where we can have the Halloween party,” she said.

Additionally, both said that they would have preferred a larger PA presence, though they reflected positively on the work of the PAs on duty that night. “was really hectic, because we were really short on workers. It’s the Halloween Party, so obviously it’s going to be a big, inebriated event. We were positioned [one PA] to each entrance, but obviously that’s not enough, because the more manpower we have, the better,” Ng said, adding that she estimated there were about five PAs present at any given time. Twelve PA slots were potentially open for the event, with PA organizers attempting to increase PA attendance to the event by offering pizza and “time-and-a-half” pay for hours spent at the party. However, Watson noted that the number of PAs shifted during the night — while the party was more understaffed at its inception, SAC members served to handle security and crowd flow.

According to Ng, PAs attended a meeting prior to the event to brief them on the specific rules of the party, at which time a representative from Public Safety came to give them an extra “heads up.”

The college has long had a unique relationship with the Swarthmore borough police, which continues to evolve as time goes on. Craig described the relationship as “excellent.” The borough police and college representatives meet monthly to discuss incidents and to improve interactions. The topic of the meeting varies from month to month, depending on the events in the previous month. Craig said the main topic of last month’s meeting was public safety on and around campus. The borough police also try to interact with students in more positive ways by holding presentations for residential assistants on safety and working with Assistant Dean Gender Education Advisor Karen Henry ’87, who is the advisor for the Sexual Misconduct and Resource Team.

---

« RETURN TO NEWS

« PREV ARTICLE | NEXT ARTICLE »